Famous Blue Raincoat

Product Information

WAS: Jennifer Warnes' take on Leonard Cohen's music is anything but dismal. In fact, it's sometimes jarring to hear his songs given the high-gloss Los Angeles production treatment. First Aid Kit Release Who By Fire Live Tribute Album Honoring Leonard Cohen". Sony Music . Retrieved 30 April 2021. Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen is the sixth studio album recorded by the American singer Jennifer Warnes. It debuted on the Billboard 200 on February 14, 1987, and peaked at No. 72 in the US Billboard chart, No.33 in the UK albums chart, and No.8 in Canada. Originally released by Cypress Records ( RCA Records in the UK), it was reissued by Private Music after Cypress went out of business. It is the only Jennifer Warnes album to make the UK albums chart (up to September 2014). Watch Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen on Wednesday, January 3 on CBC". CBC Arts, December 29, 2017. However, while I originally found it difficult to completely warm up to Warnes' performance perfection and her inherent "chipperness", I'm far more appreciative of it now as I am of the arrangements and the overall production. I found Warnes take on "Song of Bernadette", particularly moving. The problem is that her technical chops are so formidable, she makes the truly difficult sound easy.

Adams, James (11 February 2006). "Legal battles? Cohen's Zen with that". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008 . Retrieved 8 April 2020.

Ratcliff, Maurice; Charlesworth, Chris (1999). The Complete Guide to the Music of Leonard Cohen. London, England: Omnibus Press. p.37. ISBN 0-7119-7508-6.

WAS: Brooding songs like Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" sound positively uplifting reframed in this manner and the recording itself is long been prized as an audiophile's dream demo disk.In reviewing the reissue, Steve Horowitz of PopMatters noted, "This anniversary edition... may finally give the album the acclaim it initially deserved." [5] Peter Gerstenzanga of The Village Voice wrote after the reissue, a b "Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Leonard Cohen Songs". Rolling Stone. 26 November 2014 . Retrieved 11 November 2016.

The supercharged opener here, "First We Take Manhattan", with stinging Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar lines, is from the then unreleased I'm Your Man album as was "There Ain't No Cure For Love". Where other singers tended to geld Cohen's often disturbingly revealing poetry, Warnes, working with the composer himself and introducing a couple of great new songs ("First We Take Manhattan" and "Song of Bernadette," which she co-wrote), matched his own versions. The high point may have been the Warnes-Cohen duet on "Joan of Arc," but the album was consistently impressive... For Warnes, the album meant her first taste of real critical success: suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist. [3] Dale from Augusta, GaActually had this happen to me with my first wife. Except that she didn't stay with me. So this song, if you'll pardon the pun, stikes a real chord with me. Cohen is incredible. He's not a singer, he's a poet who sings. The lyrics contain references to the German love song " Lili Marlene," to Scientology, and to Clinton Street. Cohen lived on Clinton Street in Manhattan in the 1970s when it was a lively Latino area. [2] Frank Nico from Kassel, GermanyIt's been now nearly 12 months since you´ve left me and I think this song is more than I could say about how I feel about this fact. Though you will never read this words, I´m glad to had you in my life. I´m sure that you will never cross this song - how sad! Keep your "famous blue raincoat" and grow old! Bye baby!I had a good raincoat then, a Burberry I got in London in 1959. Elizabeth thought I looked like a spider in it. That was probably why she wouldn't go to Greece with me. It hung more heroically when I took out the lining, and achieved glory when the frayed sleeves were repaired with a little leather. Things were clear. I knew how to dress in those days. It was stolen from Marianne's loft in New York City sometime during the early seventies. I wasn't wearing it very much toward the end. Cohen's version is sung from the perspective of a man discussing with another man a woman they both had a relationship with. Many female artists have managed to flip the gender and make the song even more ambiguous. Joan Baez, Tori Amos, Laurie MacAllister and Jennifer Warnes are some of the artists who have covered this song. In 1987, Warnes released an entire album of Cohen's songs called Famous Blue Raincoat before contributing to the hit " (I've Had) The Time of My Life" later that year. The original recording starts in the key of A minor, but switches to C major during the choruses. Cohen said, "That's nice. I guess I got that from Spanish music, which has that." [5] Reception [ edit ]

When Cohen later released his equally splashy I'm Your Man album the new audience was primed, the older one supportive and Cohen's career took off, reaching heretofore unscaled heights of popularity and iconic cultural acceptance. Now in his '80s, Leonard Cohen has never been more popular, nor has his audience demographic been so young. He's the hippest oldster on the scene—even more so than Dylan. Cohen said in a 1993 issue of Song Talk: "I thought that Jennifer Warnes' version in a sense was better because I worked on a different version for her, and I thought it was somewhat more coherent. But I always thought that that was a song you could see the carpentry in a bit. Although there are some images in it that I am very pleased with. And the tune is real good. But I'm willing to defend it, saying it was impressionistic. It's stylistically coherent. And I can defend it if I have to. But secretly I always felt that there was a certain incoherence that prevented it from being a great song." Dan from Sydney, AustraliaI agree with Joanie about the "flake of your life" line. Absolutely brilliant and the devastation of it is literally soul crushing. The fact that a mere "flake" of the other man was enough to make Cohen's woman happier than he could ever hope to make her himself. Just put yourself in those shoes with a relationship you may be in and consider how it would feel... Ben from St. Louis, MoSuch a great, sad song. Even though his best friend took his woman away, he recognizes that she wasn't happy with him to begin with. "Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good so I never tried." Love it.

Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.333. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.